Children with disabilities 'invisible' and marginalised: UN

A mentally disabled boy tied to a bed inside a dormatory room at the Bo De Pagoda orphanage in Hanoi. Children with disabilities are among the most marginalised and excluded in the world, often going unregistered at birth and facing bullying, discrimination and even murder, a new United Nations report said on Thursday. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP

HANOI (AFP) - Children with disabilities are among the most marginalised and excluded in the world, often going unregistered at birth and facing bullying, discrimination and even murder, a new United Nations report said on Thursday.

"Many of the deprivations endured by children with disabilities stem from and are perpetuated by their invisibility," the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in The State of the World's Children 2013 report.

Disabled children are at greater risk of being poor, are least likely to receive an education and healthcare, and in many countries face abandonment or institutionalisation, according to the report.

"There is no group of children who are not just left behind but nearly invisible as much as children with disabilities," UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake told AFP ahead of the report's release in Vietnam.